Court bars royal can­di­date, reinstates ex-MP Hashem

KUWAIT: The ap­peals court yes­ter­day up­held a de­ci­sion by the elec­tion au­thor­i­ties to bar rul­ing fam­ily mem­ber Sheikh Malek Al-Hu­moud Al-Sabah from run­ning in the Nov 26 polls. The court over­turned a rul­ing by the lower ad­min­is­tra­tive court which last week said in a land­mark ver­dict that mem­bers of the rul­ing fam­ily can con­test par­lia­men­tary polls. The Kuwaiti con­sti­tu­tion does not ex­plic­itly bar rul­ing fam­ily mem­ber from com­pet­ing in par­lia­men­tary elec­tions, but its ex­plana­tory note states that they can­not run in or­der to keep the rul­ing fam­ily away from pol­i­tics.

The lower court said last week the ex­plana­tory note does not amount to a ban and al­lowed Sheikh Malek to re­main in the race. But the ap­peals court re­jected the rul­ing and in­sisted that rul­ing fam­ily mem­bers can­not run in polls. The is­sue will be set­tled by the country’s top court, the cas­sa­tion court, whose rul­ings are fi­nal. If that court de­cides he can run, the in­te­rior min­istry will reg­is­ter him.

The ap­peals court also re­jected the can­di­dacy of Khaled Dehrab, sup­port­ing the de­ci­sion of the elec­tion au­thor­ity. It how­ever re­in­stated for­mer MP Safa AlHashem who was barred by the elec­tion au­thor­ity, but re­in­stated by the lower ad­min­is­tra­tive court. The case will now go to the court of cas­sa­tion, but it is un­likely the court will bar her. The ap­peals court also re­in­stated three other can­di­dates in­clud­ing Khaled Al-Mu­tairi. It set to­mor­row as the date to is­sue its ver­dict on the case of for­mer op­po­si­tion MP Bader Al-Da­houm.